Chatham Teen Raises Over $6K in Food Drive

In a friendly rivalry between teens from and Mendham High School, Chatham came out on top.

Tim Lonergan, a sophomore at , and Brendan Lewis, a freshman at Mendham High, collected food donations from their respective communities throughout the month of June. When collections ended Friday, the two had gathered $10,153 worth of goods.

As Lonergan's efforts reaped in the donations, he raised his donation goal from $2,500 to $4,000, then to $6,500 in goods. He came close to his final goal, with a total of $6,423 in donations for the Morristown Corps of the Salvation Army.

Lewis also raised his goal during the drive. He collected a total of $3,730 for the Salvation Army's Dover Corps.

“A lot of people have contributed to our drives and we’ve had some nice things written about what we are doing. I think it’s helping to create more awareness that there are hungry people here in Morris County,”  Lonergan said.

Brenda Beavers, the New Jersey divisional director of Human Services for the Salvation Army, said, "I don’t think people realize how important it is to fill the food pantries in the summer when kids are not in school to get their one hot meal a day."

With many area families on vacation during the summer, Beavers said it is hard to run a food drive. "This contest between the schools is a great way to have some fun while helping us to feed hungry families this summer," she said.

Donations were tracked using YouGiveGoods.com, a website based in Mendham that facilitates charity drives. Lonergan's mother, Mary, is the director of strategic partnerships for YouGiveGoods.com.

The website recently launched a Food Drive Contest feature, which the boys used to keep track of which community donated the most food.

Chatham Patch and Mendham Patch also got involved by donating one can of food for everyone who signed up for our newsletters.

You can check out Brendan’s drive in support of the Salvation Army—Dover Corps.

And you can check out Tim’s drive in support of the Salvation Army—Morristown Corps.

Or view the Scoreboard to see how the two measured up.